The present invention relates to a vehicle-to-individual paging system and particularly a system by which multiple paging units are removably mounted to a vehicle docking station, such as a visor which includes a paging transmitter.
With today's lifestyle involving children's activities, mothers and fathers frequently believe they are taxi drivers ferrying their children to school, various after school activities, shopping malls and other activities remote from the home environment. Children, as it were, are sometimes inattentive to times at which they are to be picked up and the parents or guardians have been known to become impatient when waiting in a vehicle for their charges to return for subsequent transportation. Lines of cars are frequently seen in front of schools, gymnasiums, shopping malls and the like with the parents eagerly awaiting the appearance of one or more of their children. Not infrequently, the car will be left while the parent forges through the building looking for their offspring.
In order to more efficiently improve the process of picking up children (or others) at various activities, it would be desirable to alert the child that the parent is awaiting their return to the vehicle. Although existing paging systems can be employed for such a purpose, they are relatively expensive, requiring the transmission of signals to a subscription service and the paging units themselves are somewhat expensive. To use the system would typically require use of a cellular telephone in the vehicle and a paging transponder on the person. It would be desirable, therefore, to have a system in which an individual could be notified electronically when the person picking the individual up is available and ready for the transportation without the need for two subscription services and two different and expensive electronic units.